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Ajax Scout SV CT40 40mm cannon light tracked armoured vehicle

The SCOUT SV is a program for the British Army to provide a new generation of light tracked armoured vehicle. The Scout SV program is lead by the Company General Dynamics UK with the goal to replace the CVRT (light armoured vehicle) fleet of the British Army. At DVD (Defence Vehicle Dynamics) exhibition which was held in Millbrook (United Kingdom), General Dynamics has unveiled the first pre-production prototype SCOUT Specialist Vehicle in Reconnaissance variant PMRS (Protected Mobility Recce Support).

Image @ukdefenceforum.net

Each SCOUT SV platform variant will be a highly-agile, tracked, medium-weight armoured fighting vehicle, providing British troops with state-of-the-art protection. AJAX SCOUT SV vehicles are developed upon a highly-adaptable and capable Common Base Platform, maximising commonality in mobility, electronic architecture and survivability that ensures the British Army has a family of world-class platforms.

Scout SV provides commanders with a survivable and capable GMMR (Ground Mounted Manned Reconnaissance) platform, which gives them flexibility to perform a range of roles across the spectrum of conflict. SCOUT’s primary role is to provide accurate and timely information to support decision making at all levels. It integrates a range of leading edge technologies to provide an optimised survivable, lethal and agile ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) platform. At DSEI 2015, the International Defense Exhibition in London (UK), the Scout SV has received its new official name, the AJAX. Under a contract awarded late in 2014, General Dynamics UK to build a total of 589 Scout SVs for the British army, with deliveries running from 2017 through to 2024. There will be paralel trials and production. The training establishment and first squadron will be equipped by mid-2019 to allow conversion to begin with a brigade ready to deploy from the end of 2020.

Armament

The AJAX Scout SV is fitted with a two-man turret developed by Lockheed Martin UK, armed with a CT40 40mm automatic cannon and a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun. The 40mm cannon is integrated into a revolutionary, user defined, fightable turret. Where the operation dictates, a fully stabilised Remote Weapons Station can be fitted to the turret instead of the Primary Sight.

Image @thinkdefence.co.uk

A bank of eight electrically operated smoke grenade launchers is mounted either side of the turret firing forwards. Primary and secondary sights of the turret are integrated with a sensor processor unit which, combined with the sights’ stabilisation systems, enables the vehicle’s turret to be rapidly traversed onto the target while on the move, providing an unsurpassed hunter-killer capability for vehicles in this class. Both sights have fully digital video outputs, in accordance with the UK Ministry of Defence’s new vetronics infrastructure for video over ethernet (VIVOE) standard, facilitating connection into the vehicles’ electronic architecture for onward distribution.

Thales; £125 million contract for sighting systems and ancillary equipment. This includes the Orion primary sight, local situational awareness cameras and smoke dischargers. Scheduled for delivery between 2016 and 2021.

The contract will extend the current in service support contract for the Scout Specialist Vehicles (SV) to 2024, delivering onshore technical engineering and maintenance from a site in South Wales. As a result, General Dynamics UK has taken the decision to bring to Wales: assembly, integration and testing for the vehicles which was previously carried out overseas.

The manufacturing strategy changed in 2015 with mounting speculation about the work split between General Dynamics locations in Span and the UK.

A £390 million support contract, in addition to the manufacturing contract, was let in order to build up experience to 2024 to allow a more thorough assessment of support requirements to be completed.

The contract will extend the current in service support contract for the Scout Specialist Vehicles (SV) to 2024, delivering onshore technical engineering and maintenance from a site in South Wales. As a result, General Dynamics UK has taken the decision to bring to Wales: assembly, integration and testing for the vehicles which was previously carried out overseas.

At DSEi in September, the latest Scout prototype was revealed, along with a name change.

Scout was now to be called Ajax. @thinkdefence.co.uk

Rheinmetall; £130 million contract from Lockheed Martin for the production of turret shells, the Turret Structure and Weapons Mount (TSWM). First production unit is scheduled for delivery in 2016. @.thinkdefence.co.uk

The first production standard Cased Telescoped Cannon System has been handed over to the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) in Bourges, France by CTA International (CTAI) – a 50/50 joint venture company between BAE Systems and Nexter Systems.

Comparison of CTA cannon and normal cannons notice the CT 40mm is very compact

It is the first delivery of 515 new 40mm cannons that have been ordered for the British Army for use in the Ajax and Warrior vehicles and incorporates unique technologies that will provide superior firepower.

Developed by specialist engineers from BAE Systems and Nexter Systems, the cannon system uses an innovative design for both the cannon and its ammunition, and is the first completely new cannon system ordered by the MOD since the 1960s. The new cannon fires 40mm Cased Telescoped ammunition, manufactured for the British Army by BAE Systems’ munitions factories in Washington, Tyne and Wear and Glascoed in Wales.

40mm Cased Telescoped ammunition @thinkdefence.co.uk

The new ammunition is neatly contained in a straight tube instead of the traditional bullet shape and can deliver a more explosive charge – up to four times the power of the 30mm rounds it replaces. The current types of ammunition developed for the cannon include armour piercing and training rounds – while a new airburst round for engaging light vehicles and infantry spread over a large area, and a point detonating round which can penetrate thick concrete – are currently undergoing qualification. CTAI is also working on an anti-aerial airburst round for airborne targets.

The cannon uses a new rotating breech system, with ammunition loaded at a 90 degree angle to the barrel before being rotated into firing position. Loading the ammunition sideways saves a large amount of space in the vehicle, allowing this to be used to store more ammunition or other equipment. The cannon has been developed and is manufactured by CTAI whose factory is now in full production of the new cannon for the MOD.

The cannon uses a new rotating breech system, with ammunition loaded at a 90 degree angle to the barrel before being rotated into firing position (VBCI-2 in IFV configuration fitted with the Nexter Systems T40 turret armed with a CTAI 40 mm CTAS @thaimilitaryandasianregion.wordpress.com)

Minister of State for Defence Procurement Philip Dunne said: “This next-generation cannon has been developed through close Anglo-French collaboration and adds significantly to the capability of the UK and our NATO allies. The delivery of the first cannon on our Ajax vehicles is another example of how our £178 billion investment in UK Defence is ensuring our Armed Forces have the equipment they need.”

Managing Director of CTAI, Craig Fennell, said: “This is a significant milestone for CTAI and a proud moment to see our cannon being handed over to the British Army. We are the only group in the world who can design and manufacture this type of cannon and ammunition, giving us a unique product for export.”

The handover of the first cannon follows many years of exhaustive testing and qualification, which has proved the effectiveness and reliability of the system. (New 40mm Cannon System Handed Over to British Army) Posted By BAE Systems – March 23, 2016defencetalk.com

Design and protection

The AJAX Scout SV has much higher survivability against a wide range of modern and evolving threats, enabled by all-round modular protection (including Mastiff levels of blast protection), acoustic detection, powerful far-target thermal sights and local situational awareness sensors.

AJAX Scout SV will provide the land environment with the only protected vehicle that has real growth potential. The hull and power train growth are designed for a 25% increase in weight, and there is 100% growth capacity in sub-system electrical power and data throughput, all built-in at the outset. The open scalable ‘security accredited’ electronic architecture will enable upgrades to be integrated with relative ease through life.

Mobility

The AJAX Scout SV is motorized with a 600kW Diesel engine coupled to an automatic transmission. The torsion bar suspension on each side consists of seven dual rubber-tyred road wheels with the drive sprocket at the front and idler at the rear. The vehicle can run at a maximum road speed of 70 km with a maximum cruising range of 500 km. The AJAX Scout SV is able to negotiate slopes up to 60%, natural and engineered trenches of 2.5m maximum and vertical obstacle of 0.75m.

MTU 8V 199 TE21 engines each have a power output of 600 kilowatts @telegraph.co.uk

Accessories

The AJAX Scout SV is fitted with primary and secondary sight. Thales UK has been selected by General Dynamics UK to supply the primary and secondary sighting systems for Scout, the reconnaissance variant of SV (specialist vehicle).

ORION has been selected as the primary Sight for the UK MoD’s Scout SV programme

The primary sight is mainly for the use of the vehicles’ commander. It enables the commander to maintain a 360° view of his surroundings, has a thermal imager to identify targets, and has a wide-area search-and-detect capability that automatically detects and tracks potential targets from their thermal signature, alerting the crew to their presence. The primary sight also includes provision for an optional laser target designator (LTD), and the AJAX Scout SV demonstration phase will mark the first use of a vehicle-mounted, under-armour LTD by the British Army. The secondary sight is for the gunner and gives him the ability to detect and identify targets at extended ranges and accurately engage targets at the full range of the main armament. It also includes a high-definition colour TV camera for daylight use, as well as a long-range day optical channel. A sophisticated, neartly packaged, Electronic Architecture, makes it the first fully digitised land platform that is able to seamlessly integrate both current and future open system ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) and communication products. Standard equipment of Scout SV includes also mobile camouflage system, fire detection system, electronic countermeasure system, and NBC protection system.